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Topic:
Describe Your Favorite Literary Character: Paul Atreides
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young_paddy1
Registered:
Apr '03
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Date Posted:
8/9/03 4:42am
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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CHARACTER: Lord Samuel Vimes Commander of The AnkhMorpork City Watch.
BOOK and AUTHOR: Most recently : Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
DESCRIPTION: He just wants the city to run smoothly, and as long as you have a thieves guild card or have an official contract from the assassins guild he won't touch you. He knows where he is in the city by wearing boots that have been worn in and feeling the cobbles through the soles. Generally kick ***, knows everything there is to know about street fighting, does his job from the heart and gut not always from the rules book.
REASON: He is the easiest character to get a mental picture of, that I have ever read.
-----signature-----
Can you see it? On the trolley.
YJCC the atkins diet's evil twin
"Always bend over backwards to stay out of hell, but never bend over forwards to get in to heaven ~ me
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Angel_Jedi_Master
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
8/9/03 10:24am
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Character: Miyu
Book & Author: Vampire Princess Miyu by Narumi Kakinouchi
DESCRIPTION: She is a SHINMA with a human side sworn to bring evil Shinma to the dark. She is sad all the time but carrys out her purpose. I look up to Miyu for her strength
REASON: just told ya
-----signature-----
You've forgotten what it's like...to have no oranges.
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ezekiel22x
Registered:
Aug '02
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Date Posted:
8/9/03 11:17am
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Character: Kedyn's Crow
Book: DragonCrown War Cycle, by Mike Stackpole
Description: A warrior stripped of his identity and exiled from his nation for a treason he didn't commit, Tarrant Hawkins became the mysterious warrior known only as Crow. His sole purpose after being reborn was to find a child of prophecy who was said to hold the key to stopping an evil from spreading across the land.
Reason: Crow's a fine example of the classic fantasy character who was forced to overcome great tragedy in order to face a darkness he experienced first-hand from spreading.
Other favorites:
Drizzt Do'Urden (R.A. Salvatore's Dark Elf books)
Caine (Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle, by Matthew Stover)
Jacen Solo, as seen in Traitor, by Matthew Stover
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ArnaKyle
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
8/9/03 12:58pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Here's my favorites, wide variety, wide reasons:
CHARACTER: Kitty Shcherbatsky
BOOK and AUTHOR: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
DESCRIPTION: Kitty is a naïeve teenager when the book begins who's only interested in attending balls and being courted by gentlemen. She's a quite typical teenager (trapped between childhood and adulthood) and eventually goes through a sort of spiritual and personal revelation, which transforms her character into an intelligent, strong, and supportive character.
REASON: Reading Anna Karenina was a sort of fantastic experience for me. I remember that I hated Kitty in the beginning only to discover later that's because she was a lot like me in the past. Unlike the tragic heroine (Anna), Kitty was able to evolve into a graceful and loving woman whereas Anna fell apart. I don't know, but all the many nuances really made her a memorable character for me. Imperfect, somewhat annoying at times, but overall it just made her more human and forced me to evaluate my own attitude and life.
Some more varied choices from me:
CHARACTER: Dick Diver
BOOK and AUTHOR: Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
DESCRIPTION: Dick is a brilliant psychologist and husband to patient Nicole. He loves her, or at least loved what she could offer him with her enormous wealth. While living on the Riviera with Nicole he meets the young actress Rosemary Hoyt and begins an affair.
REASON: Like Fitzgerald's many other characters, money matters to Diver. He's intelligent, suave, and a romantic, but he was caught up with something else, convinced that he actually loved Nicole. In all honesty, Dick's character is really kind of pathetic-- he's easily swayed by wealth and has given up his career to lounge around on the French coast. There's something terribly sad about his "fall" from the man that Rosemary meets at the beginning and the tragedy of it all is quite influential. I just thought his character was fascinating because he had made so many bad decisions and could never escape them.
CHARACTER: Atticus Finch
BOOK and AUTHOR: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
DESCRIPTION: A small country lawyer that argues for justice even against all prejudices, and a kindly hearted father.
REASON: It's Atticus Finch. I really don't need to say much more.  And along with the novel inevitably comes that beautiful performance by Gregory Peck. It's the character though-- the inner goodness of his heart. His life on a grand scale is not terribly important, and his case failed. His two claims to fame in the town-- his ability as being a great shot, and much less favorably being branded as a not nice term-lover. But for the reader, everything he's done matters, because of what he stood for. I honestly can't think of a better hero (neither could the AFI, apparently), and he was so real (most of my other choices are far from being so moral), but Atticus Finch was really one of my favorites. I don't know...he's just one of the ultimate good guys that I can't imagine anyone hating.
-----signature-----
yes I said yes I will Yes.
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Drew_Atreides
Registered:
Apr '02
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Date Posted:
8/10/03 4:20am
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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CHARACTER: Paul Atreides
BOOK and AUTHOR: "Dune", "Dune Messiah", "Children of Dune" by Frank Herbert
DESCRIPTION: Son of Leto, Paul is the heir of House Atreides. When his father is killed, Paul flees to the deserts of the Planet Arrakis and fulfills his destiny as the Messiah of the Fremen, a secretive people of the sand. Paul, as things turn out, is also the Qwisatz Haderach, or the ultimate being, the result of a breeding program insituted by the Bene Gesserit many millennia ago. Young Atreides teaches the Fremen the weirding ways of the Bene Gesserit, and leads them in a battle against the combined forces of the Emperor of the Known Universe and the Harkonnen to gain control of...well, everything. He wins and is crowned Emperor. This sparks a bloody Jihad which wages throughout the Universe. Billions are killed in the name of Paul "Muad'dib". A fanatical religion rises up to worship his name. Paul, after being blinded and losing his wife, heads off into the desert in the hopes of ending the death and destruction. He leaves the throne in the hands of his sister, Alia, with the intention that someday his son Leto II would assume the throne and take the fabled "Golden Path". This path would, in theory, lead the Universe towards ultimate piece and harmony.
REASON: Paul is just such a tragic figure. He knew what HAD to be done, knew his destiny, yet also realized and regretted the blood of the billions that died at his hand. Paul wished he could prevent Destiny, yet realized the futility of trying.
-----signature-----
Don't mess with Tony Jaa's elephants.
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Bant428
Registered:
Jul '02
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Date Posted:
8/10/03 5:28pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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wow! almost all my fav characters are already here! huck finn, peter wiggin, holden caulfield... wow!
CHARACTER: Riveda/Colin McPharen (sp?)
BOOK and AUTHOR: The Fall of Atlantis/Heartlight, bith by Marion Zimmer Bradley
DESCRIPTION: an immensively intense man whose only trap in his rise to dark power was the tool he needed -- the love of a woman [sounds cliche, i know, but its awesome!]
REASON: He's a powerful man who falls into the trap of knowledge-lust in Fall, but ends up redeeming himself in further reincarnations. [seriously, MZB is one of the best authors out there. i love how the characters reincarnate! =)]
-----signature-----
Not Here Anymore
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Cow_Girl
Title: Chapter Rep
Niagara ON, CA
Registered:
Jun '01
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Date Posted:
8/12/03 3:51pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
- Date Edited:
8/12/03 4:01pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Cow_Girl
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Character:Eowyn
Book and Aurthor: TTT and ROTK by JRR Tolkien
Description:A shieldmaiden of Rohan who falls in love with a man that falls in love with a man that has promised his heart to another.
ReasonThe LOTR triologhy has few main female characters (Galadriel and Arwen) I have only recently started reading the books, I see so much of myself in this character, I can understand her motivations and fears. Arwen and Galadriel are both Elves, and seem in everyway, perfect. Eowyn is a very real character, she makes mistakes and feels that she most somehow prove her worth. I found how her story ended rather sad, a woman that had accomplished great things, had to *Settle* with Faramir, who I am convinced that never truely loved, but rather saw him as one last chance at happiness. If I could ask JRR just one question, I would ask him why he decided to have a strong female character like Eowyn, just give up in the end.
-----signature-----
Chapter Rep, Young Jedi Niagara, Canada ~Faithful beyond Fear~ http://hiril-anwyn.livejournal.com/profile
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JediMasterCheGuevara
Registered:
Apr '03
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Date Posted:
8/12/03 8:46pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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CHARACTER: Aureliano Buendia (the 1st!)
BOOK/AUTHOR: One-Hundred Years of Solitude; Gabriel Garcia Marquez
WHY: He cried inside of the womb. He fought 36 wars and lost them all. He shot himself in the chest with no serious injury. He could never love. All he got was that lousy street sign named after him.
-----signature-----
Hold onto that passion!
Keep it locked up inside your heart, released only in small portions to be beheld by others when the sand is blown against your sheer white turban in the sunset, wind in the palms behind you!
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Ty-gon Jinn
Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
8/20/03 10:39pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Okay, can I add an "Amen" to the people who posted Atticus Finch, Sam Gamgee, Eowyn, Hamlet, and Heathcliff?
Here's mine...
CHARACTER: Dr. Elwin Ransom
BOOK and AUTHOR: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength, by Clive Staples Lewis
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Ransom is introduced as a traveler, a man backpacking through England on a long walking tour, and nothing more. We quickly learn, however, that he is a philologist (a linguist), that he is escaping the rigors of city life, and that he has no place to spend the night. However, when he intervenes on behalf of a young man whose mother is worried about him and stays the night at an odd manor in the boy's place, his adventures begin as he is kidnapped and taken to Malacandra, as the planet Mars is called by its inhabitants. This sets off a rather odd chain of events in which he befriends the great angelic archon of the planet, who later sends him to Venus, oddly enough, because he knows the language. On Venus, Ransom must struggle to save a new paradise from an old enemy, now demon-possessed as a representative of Earth's own Dark Archon, and is wounded, but survives to come back and watch the drama of angelic conflict play out in the battle between cold science and old values in England as the seige of the planet Earth is broken. (Whew! That's a long description!)
REASON: Can you consider a fictional character to be a personal hero? Elwin Ransom, then, is as close as a fictional character can get. As a man thrust against his will into the center of things when men "pull down Deep Heaven upon their heads," he finds himself only strengthened by the entire experience. I also admire him as a short-term missionary... as he surely was to the planet Venus. Of course, he faces demonic forces in a head-on, physical form, but to be the first interplanetary missionary, in any form, is an honor that few characters could ever live up to. The entire eleventh chapter of Perelandra is amazingly poignant as Ransom argues with God in the dark Venusian night... there's an excerpt, my favorite passage in all of fiction, in my User Bio.
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Laine_Snowtrekker
Registered:
Jul '03
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Date Posted:
8/29/03 2:12pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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I LOVE Dr. Ransom! The Space Trilogy is one of the tightest sets of books I've ever read.
CHARACTER: John
BOOK AND AUTHOR: Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
DESCRIPTION: A man torn between two worlds, the world of life, religion, science, and thinking, and the world of "civilization". finally he ends up hanging himself after trying to take the best of both worlds
REASONS: Although I disagree with his solution of suicide, I do admire his bravery to try out this new world, even though he doesn't really belong in either world.
-----signature-----
Stealth and subtlety work well, but for making lasting impressions, a blaster does just fine. -Han
Room full of gold and jewels, and Dr. Daniel Jackson finds the one book. -Cam
Palso's #1 Fan
JO: RS1, Admiral
Fanfic link in bio (esp. 08 Diary Challenge)
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Healer Apprentice Lina
Registered:
Jun '00
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Date Posted:
11/5/03 1:27pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Another one from me...
CHARACTER: Dustfinger
BOOK: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
DESCRIPTION: One fateful night, Meggie's world turns upside down when she realizes her father, Mo, has the power to read characters straight out of books. Years ago, Mo "read" Dustfinger and the villainous Capricorn out of a children's adventure book entitled Inkheart. Stuck in Mo and Meggie's world forever, Dustfinger is hardly pleased. Capricorn, on the other hand, has found new grounds to spread his evil.
REASON: To begin with, INKHEART is a great book. It's obviously written for children, but there's enough here for any adult to enjoy as well. I particularly liked the way Funke maintains a certain realism to her story. The main motto being, there's no such thing as a clean ending.
Dustfinger is hardly the hero of this book. He's not even really a hero at heart. He's just an ordinary guy who just wants to get back home after being accidentally sucked out of it. I really liked the way Funke is able to elicit sympathy from the readers for Dustfinger, even when he's behaving rather selfishly in many parts. He may snap, curse, and push away those who want to be his friend, but he's written w/enough deft that his underlying sorrow is always present and always palpable.
-----signature-----
"I am Hermes. I become tamed by devouring my own wings."
--Hellsing
Visit my book review blog:
http://thereaderfriendly.blogspot.com
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JadeSolo
Title: NSF managing NSWFF
Registered:
Sep '02
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Date Posted:
11/5/03 9:56pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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CHARACTER: Dienekes
BOOK: Gates of Fire - Steven Pressfield
DESCRIPTION: One of the 300 Spartans who defended the pass at the Battle of Thermopylae during the Persian Wars. The 300's suicide mission there gave the rest of ancient Greece time to prepare for the Persian invasion inland.
REASON: Most people think of Spartans as obsessed with military, harsh, living with only the bare necesseties. While that is true from a certain perspective, they were also a much more "liberal" culture (especially when it came to treatment of women). Dienekes is a noble man and a brave warrior, who treats his helot servant Xeo (story's narrator) with as much love as he treats the young man he mentors, Alexandros. He is stern and disciplined and loyal, but he also knows how to lift spirits and encourage his men. At one point, one man says that the Persians have so many arrows that the barbs block out the sunlight as they fly across the sky. Dienekes laughs and says, "Good. Then we'll have our battle in the shade."
CHARACTER: Bagger Vance
BOOK: The Legend of Bagger Vance - Steven Pressfield
DESCRIPTION: Bagger is a mysterious black man who is companion and caddy to Rannulph Junuh, Savannah's local golf champion-turned-scarred-war-hero, who has been asked to play in a celebrity exhibition match to raise the spirits of the South during the Depression.
REASON: This book, in a way, is the Bhagavad Gita for 1920s Savannah. Bagger is Lord Krishna, who teaches his charge not just how to get back his golf swing but how to find his place in the world. Bagger is everything in the universe, and in every lifetime he comes into this world to restore balance to it. It's hard for me to explain without having this turn into a big essay, but the lessons that Bagger teaches apply not just to golf, not just to 1920s Savannah, but to anyone anywhere. Bagger is stern, he talks about things that no one seems to understand, and he often doesn't directly answer a question. But he is always at Junuh's side, even when Junuh lets his arrogance and ego get the better of him. He has this great paternal love for his charge, but he will not lead Junuh by the hand to self-awareness. The film touched over a few of these things, but the novel is amazing. Bagger's revelations about himself, the words he imparts, and his loyalty to Junuh move me in ways I can't describe.
-----signature-----
"If you expect a kick in the balls and you get a slap in the face, it's a victory."
"May God bless you and keep you always...I mean that in a civic deist way." -Prof. Siegel
"No guaranteed money, but all guaranteed fun!"
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Healer Apprentice Lina
Registered:
Jun '00
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Date Posted:
11/20/03 3:02pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Another...
CHARACTER: Dr. Stephen Maturin
BOOK: Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian
DESCRIPTION: The 20 book saga tells the adventures of sea captain Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon and british intelligence officer, Dr. Stephen Maturin during the Napoleonic Era.
REASON: So I'll admit that I had sort of forgotten about these books back when I read them as a kid until recently w/the Russell Crowe movie jogging my memory.
Maturin is what you would call an incredibly accomplished man who has a mind for learning. In his young lifetime, he has learned to speak several languages, plays musical instruments, is a medical doctor, works as a spy, handy with a sword, and is a Naturalist with a hunger for knowledge regarding the origin of our species. I would think he would have beaten Darwin to writing that groundbreaking book had he not been so busy running around w/Jack Aubrey.
Throughout the series, you're always on your toes about Maturin. He is Aubrey's best friend and confidant and can get quite sentimental, despite calling himself pragmatic. And then, BAM! When the situation calls for it he can become the most relentless, ruthless spy the Navy has ever seen. Needless to say, he's a character that grips you for the long run.
-----signature-----
"I am Hermes. I become tamed by devouring my own wings."
--Hellsing
Visit my book review blog:
http://thereaderfriendly.blogspot.com
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Keeper_of_Swords
Registered:
Sep '03
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Date Posted:
2/7/04 11:46am
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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Derfel Cadarn from The Warlord Chronicles
-----signature-----
The next day there came no dawn and the Grey Company passed on into the darkness of the storm of Mordor and were lost to mortal sight. But the Dead followed them.
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Corellian_Rogue
Registered:
Sep '01
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Date Posted:
2/8/04 6:24pm
Subject:
RE: Describe Your ~Favorite Literary Character~
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CHARACTER: Winston Smith
BOOK/AUTHOR: Nineteen Eighty-Four/ George Orwell
DESCRIPTION: A seemingly non-remarkable man (not handsome, not particularly courageous, not optimistic) who refuses to believe that there was nothing better before the wars that turned the world into one ruled by the forever watchful BIG BROTHER. (very short description!)
REASON: Now here's the hard bit...every fibre of your being should hate him for his cowardly features (Do it to Julia) but the fact is that he's a normal person, proving that no one can be truly heroic in the face of their very fears. A very pessimistic viewpoint to take I know but I personally believe it to be the truth. A very complex character that I couldn't go into all of it right now...you'd have a ten page essay on your hands!  "Two and Two make Five" -the ultimate dominance of the government over the individual.
And here's another:
CHARACTER: Achilles
BOOK/AUTHOR: The Iliad/Homer or if you don't feel like reading a whole lot of verse The Song of Troy/ Colleen McCollough
DESCRIPTION: A killing machine tortured by every life he takes, but to be a slayer is his fate and eventual death.
REASON: He is in such agony...so much pain and tortured by those he kills in battle. He should be a gloriously proud and fanastic hero but this inner tormoil plagues and eats at him. A beautiful but bloody story about to be shamed with Brad Pitt playing Achilles in the film Troy 
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My art- jeddibub.deviantart.com
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